I’ve come up with a lot of guidelines that I like to share with people during workshops and coaching sessions. These are guidelines based on my experiences and not RULES. Most of my guidelines have wiggle room. If you have a different perspective, I would love to discuss what that might be in the comments.

Today I’m going to talk about one of the guidelines I talk about a lot about how much of “what” to say on Twitter.

Talking on Twitter

Twitter, of all the online spaces (Linked In, Google+, Facebook, etc) is a space that is the most like real-life interactions. Over and over when I talk about Twitter I compare it to a networking event:

You wouldn’t walk up to someone at a networking event you have never met before or said hi to and exclaim, “2 for 1 haircuts at my salon next week!” That would be rude, uncomfortable and ineffective.

You don’t talk only business at a networking event, you exchange pleasantries about the weather, recent sports events and other lighter subjects. It isn’t personal…it’s personable.

Twitter is the same. If you don’t think of it that way you won’t capitalize on the full potential of the tool.

Rule of thirds

My general recommendation to people is that no more than a third of what you say on twitter should you be broadcasting/promoting yourself. You can definitely send out the sales pitch type tweets, but keep them to one third of your tweets or less.

What do you say the rest of the time?

Use the other two thirds to retweet what others are saying (there is a lot of great information out there), and comment and reply to what others are saying. Engage and share other people’s information so that you are providing useful content to others and building relationships.

Just remember to keep your audience in mind - what do you think they would want to hear about? By being helpful in a way that isn’t always promoting yourself you will build fabulous relationships on twitter!